TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2025 // Day 5
We had a slow morning for the first time this trip. I took too many bus naps yesterday, and so I didn’t fall asleep until 1AM. Thankfully my body let me sleep in a little and I didn’t wake up until 730A.
We had breakfast, then boarded the bus to head on an hour drive to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. We were decked out in our warmest gear, as that was what our itinerary advised. Turns out we needn't have worn so many layers - we stayed dry and warm! We went on a boat ride throughout the lagoon so we could get a closer look at the ice bergs. The blue color of some ice bergs means they are compressed and dense - there is no oxygen in them. I personally liked what I called the marble icebergs. They had layers of black in them from the ashes after volcanic eruptions. Though it felt like there were giant ice bergs everywhere, in reality, only 10% of the ice bergs are visible - the other 90% are all located underwater. The lagoon that we were boating in used to be a part of the glacier, but because it feeds into the Atlantic Ocean, the salt water hits the ice and melts it. It is the deepest lake in Iceland, with its deepest parts roughly 280 meters deep. The fish that inhabit the lagoon are fish like salmon, cod, and herring. The seals also like to come in from the ocean and eat because they’re are the only predators in the lagoon as it is not deep enough for the whales.
We then walked down to Diamond beach, but because we were pretty far from low tide, there were no icebergs on the beach.
We got on the bus and headed down the road to the place we were going to eat lunch. We had to cross a one lane bridge, and despite there already being cars coming from the opposite direction, our bus driver decided to try to cross it anyway. This led to our amazing tour director getting out and directing the line of cars opposite us to backing up so we could finish crossing the bridge.
For lunch, it was a kind of buffet, and I was pretty disappointed by it. We did get to walk out to the lake right at the bottom of the glacier though, and that was pretty neat.
We got on the bus to head back to the town our hotel was in. The itinerary was supposed to be longer today, but our lodging ended up being further east than originally planned, so our last activity of the day was pushed until tomorrow.
We ended up splitting up for dinner. Aaron, Sarah, Ike and I decided on going to Kaffi Hornid - a little pub in town. I ordered fish and chips for the fourth time in the past 5 days. They didn’t have tartar sauce! They gave me a sauce that tasted like curry. It was….odd.
For the second night in a row, I was fighting sleep. Up until the night before, I’d had no issues with the time change and went to bed at 10 or 11, then had been up at 6. This night, I was seeing 1AM for the second night in a row. However, this turned out to be in my favor. I looked out the window, and what did I see? The northern lights!! It’s definitely not northern lights season, so I had zero expectations of seeing them. What a great surprise this was!!
ICYMI
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